Unpopular opinion: Hickman's X-Men is going downhill

[SiegePerilous02]

Y'all really going to forget the Outback Era disassemble era? Storm? Gone. Kitty? Gone. Nightcrawler? Gone. Colossus? Gone. Professor? Gone. Cyke? Gone. Wolverine? Crucified and left for dead, saved by Jubilee. For a minute there, it was just Sean and Forge.

Kitty and Nightcrawler were in Excalibur. Wolverine, Colossus and Storm never left the book. Cyclops and Xavier were not characters he created or developed nearly from scratch.

yeah, the dissolution era doesn't really count because the intent was to bring the cast back together. And no way were Storm and Wolverine ever going to leave the X-Men as long as he was writing. While Kitty, Kurt and Rachel were always at least in Excalibur, not being primed for "retirement"

In fairness to him, I think his favoritism is less obvious because naturally the X-Men wasn't much of a franchise before he got hold of it and he provided a LOT of stable additions to the cast. He at least cared enough about Scott and Jean to write a lengthy arc for them before writing them out, and I feel he'd have happily used Hank more if he'd been able to. Warren, Bobby and Lorna though...lol what'd they do to piss him off.

[yogaflame]

In fairness, other than occasionally make them go crazy, what has any writer done with them that was all that interesting?

[Marvell2100]

Hickman's FF and East of West are good. His Avengers/TRO/Secret Wars was good to average.

I really don't have a strong opinion of his X-Men because I'm not reading everything. The scope and ideas are good. The execution is a little shaky at times but he's changed the status quo, some good some bad.

I lost my X-men enthusiasm many years ago. Hickman hasn't brought it back but he has made me curious. Maybe I'll go back and look at trades but I don't feel the need to get really involved with this right now until it's complete. Let's see where things stand at the end.

[davetvs]

Honestly what he is giving us is still better than pre Hickman X-Men. I’m just realizing X-men readers are not patient at all and they only want to read about their own favorite characters.

Ding ding ding! A good, what, 75% of all criticism boils down to "my favorite character didn't get a big enough moment, therefore everything sucks." The other 25% is "this is taking too long to resolve, I prefer A-B-C-1-2-3 simple storytelling." The medium will never be able to evolve that way, and by and large the best [modern] comic stories don't have that basic dumbed down structure either.

[yogaflame]

Kitty and Nightcrawler were in Excalibur. Wolverine, Colossus and Storm never left the book. Cyclops and Xavier were not characters he created or developed nearly from scratch.

For a looooong time, like what, 20 issues or more, they were not in Uncanny, or X-Men at all. He had Sean and Forge hold down the plot while slowly reintroducing the old characters under very new circumstances, along with a brand new character in Gambit. It wasn't until X-tinction Agenda that all the various factions start to come back together, and not until the very end under editorial mandate that they all were X-Men at the mansion again.

[SiegePerilous02]

In fairness, other than occasionally make them go crazy, what has any writer done with them that was all that interesting?

I'm pretty sure like 99% of that is because Claremont ignored them during the key era of the X-Men, and nobody has any foundation to go off of.*

Like the only reason Scott and Jean are still a big deal and people consider them essential is because he did stuff like DPS with them

*Except poor Lorna going crazy lol

[baxer]

Ding ding ding! A good, what, 75% of all criticism boils down to "my favorite character didn't get a big enough moment, therefore everything sucks." The other 25% is "this is taking too long to resolve, I prefer A-B-C-1-2-3 simple storytelling." The medium will never be able to evolve that way, and by and large the best [modern] comic stories don't have that basic dumbed down structure either.

I absolutely love immortal Hulk.

I just cant with people saying that Hickman is the pinnacle of comic book story telling and if people dont like him we like dumb comics

[Omega Alpha]

For a looooong time, like what, 20 issues or more, they were not in Uncanny, or X-Men at all. He had Sean and Forge hold down the plot while slowly reintroducing the old characters under very new circumstances, along with a brand new character in Gambit. It wasn't until X-tinction Agenda that all the various factions start to come back together, and not until the very end under editorial mandate that they all were X-Men at the mansion again.

They still appeared there, and Logan had his solo, and he never intended them to leave the book.

[Mike]

What’s your question? If you didn’t like his other Marvel work I’d say it’s a safe bet you wouldn’t like this either if that’s what you’re asking. It is definitely a Hickman book done in his signature style.

I have no question.

[Zelena]

So you've actually read HoX/PoX? I ask because you seemed pretty adamant about not reading any of it in your previous posts

I did. It was like reading an out-of-character fanfiction.

[Zelena]

Lol, Claremont did have a favorite, it was Storm, he clearly loved her more than the other characthers. In his defense, he didn't treat the rest of the team badly, they all have a purpose and actual subplots going for then. Thought some of the plots were weird.

At least, when he was interviewed, he was unable to point out one. Maybe he wasn’t conscious of it.

Yes, Lorna was treated badly, Claremont kept her in the fringe and never wrote her a convincing strong story. I must admit, at the time, I didn’t notice it.

[Glio]

We all know Claremont's favorite characters, he doesn't have to say them openly.

And today Sage or Rachel Summers would receive exactly the same kind of criticism that the "Hickman's OCs" receive.

[charliehustle415]

Everybody in this thread needs to chill, we are knee deep in an epic storyline - how can we possibly judge it?

For the old heads, change is difficult but it is needed to revamp a stagnant IP and Claremont is no longer the end all be all of the X-Men and he hasn't been for a long time.

People were pissed when he introduced the All New All Different X-Men too, relax and enjoy the fireworks.

Also if you didn't like Hickman's FF or Avengers then at least give the X-Men a shot because it is different. It is the first time he is the head of an entire franchise and is guiding from the ground up. Every X title is working in conjunction with his vision unlike Avengers where other writers kept making giant status quo changes (I'm looking at Aaron's Thor and Slott's Superior Spidey) - you may actually enjoy it

[federicodettofred]

Anyways I wish InhumanVsX-men, The Draco, Extraordinary X-men, X-men Gold, The 12 storyline, Blood of Apocalypse storyline, Rosenberg Uncanny, That Vampire Run in San Francisco, The Romulus stuff, AvX on some of you guys then maybe you will learn to appreciate a solid well-executed storyline.

Uhm, that's your opinion anyway. I liked some of these and I like parts of Hickman's X-Men, but it's your own opinion that it is a "solid well-executed storyline". Also, we will LEARN? Who are you exactly?

[federicodettofred]

As it stands, you have a book that starts with 3-4 issues with the lead being Cyclops, focusing on him and the characters closer to him, then you jump for a story about Mystique that has no connection to what came before and isn't touched after, then you have a few issues in which he appears, then all the sudden it's one issue focused on Magneto, another in Vulcan, then Apocalypse, etc. There's no connective issue with what comes before, which makes it harder to read or care about- and will probably look worse on trade.

Exactly! It's almost as if Hickman has so may ideas he doesn't know what to tell first. If I read X-Force or Wolverine I can easily follow the story. X-Men? It's a mess. Every issue is so slow and just full of dialogues that lead nowhere. And I'm not all about action, I love things like Immortal Hulk (but that is a roller coaster compared to X-Men).